My Response to Borges

Borges shows how ignorance can be destructive in his stories: “The Garden of Forking Paths”, “The Gospel According to Mark”, and “Emma Zunz”. All of which end in the death of at least one person, but different situations lead to these deaths. First, in “The Garden of Forking Paths”, the main character, Hsi P'eng, kills Stephen Albert, even though he's the only person to ever figure out his ancestors work, to prove he's not a coward. What Hsi P'eng fails to realize is that Stephen Albert is the only person that could have brought honor to his family. Second, in “The Gospel According to Mark”, the Gutres' misunderstanding of what Espinosa is trying to tell them leads to them sacrificing him. Third, in “Emma Zunz” there's the ignorance of Lowenthal's effect on Emma's father's life and the ignorance of the cops. I find it particularly interesting in the way that he shows how this is done, and even though Cortázar disagrees with this, I completely agree with Borges. If you think about it a lot of artists or scientists have been ridiculed all because of ignorance. Such as Galileo and his discoveries being persecuted by the Catholic Church. Of course, today we acknowledge and appreciate his work, but when he was alive the lack of open-mindedness of others decided his fate.

The other themes of Borges that I found interesting was his theory on time in “The Garden of Forking Paths” and the ability to make a truth like in “Emma Zunz”. His concept of time is amazing to think about and kind of mind blowing in itself. The idea that time isn't a one way street that there are many realities and all of them happening at the same time is weird to think about. It really makes the idea of how one decision can change your entire life very real. This kind of ties in with his idea in “Emma Zunz” that you can make your own truth. As we all know Emma wasn't really raped by Lowenthal, but made it appear that way. It's fascinating to wonder how much that we hear about is true. Borges makes your mind boggle in a different way than Cortázar, but is still pretty torturing to your mind. Although I have to say I loved Borges! Probably my favorite so far!